Maya is Maria Ysabella in real life. Maria because she's born in the month of the holy rosary. Ysabella because I simply like how it sounds.

She is our favorite daughter. Only girl po siya.

She's the namesake of my boss Maya Cartojano, who was very kind to drive me to the birthing place when I was having contractions 18 years ago today.

She was my first business partner. We would walk the streets with my Tupperware Kit on my left hand and her tiny fingers on my right. I would place her on countertops while I do business.

She was confined when she was just more than a year old where she cried nonstop calling for Lolo Daddy. This caught the attention of Businessman Pet Amadeo who thought the baby might be uncomfortable in that semi-private room so he moved us to a private room and paid for it.

When she was 6, she won as Little Kristala in Sara Lee's local competitions where she had to wear her Tita's bathing suit, tied with lastiko at the back so that it would look snugly fit on her, a pair of poorly dyed stockings which failed to achieve the royal blue color and a piece of kitchen curtain as cape!

She joined Marasa Grill's Basic Cooking Lessons by Chef Kring when she was in grade 4. She learned how to cook eggs: fried, boiled, sunny side up and poached. She learned to cook basic adobo and fried fish. Today, she prepares dinner for the family, sometimes with fried egg and adobo. Pero marunong na xang magsigang and magluto ng maski-paps with a little help from Mama Sita: Oyster Sows.

What's in my cabinet is IN her wardrobe too! In short, ang damit ko ay dinadamit na rin niya. So if wala ang blouse ko, i go like "MAYAAAAAAAA!".

She and her kuya ran away from home when they were kids with a few clothes inside a sando bag na nakatali sa dulo ng patpat! They went to a cornfield that was just a few meters from home---Kay nakasab-an man!

She's the wife of LUFFY....say what??! She's now into instagram rather than FB.

She's a kid gangstah! Her favorite teleserye character is the villain named "Bagyo" in ABSCBN's "Mula sa Puso" played by the late Mark Gil, thus her nickname (one of the many nicknames she's got) "Beans" , short for Baguio Beans.

She's kinda shy but she tried the world of modelling. Some people say bumi-Venus Raj siya. Pero ayaw nia kay Venus.

Today she turns 18...legally not blonde, but she'll forever be my little Maya, whose little hands I've held so many times walking down the streets, whose shrieking voice I, can only stand, who bears being told to be my own reflection, whose hair I have pulled not just twice on rough times but still comes to me on calmer days for a clean braid.